It’s difficult for me to articulate my thoughts about anarchism because in many respects I’m not entirely sure what it is.  Perhaps this obscurity of anarchism belongs to its essence.  In ordinary language anarchy generally signifies chaos and disorder.  I do not think this is the case.  In my mind, anarchism isn’t the absence of order, nor law, but is a question of where order and law come from.  I’m not, however, firm on that hypothesis.  Perhaps anarchism could denote a form of social and political organization without any law, but that would require a number of qualifications.

My thesis is that anarchism is the form of political organization that haunts all politics.  However, this formula is liable to misinterpretation. “Haunting” generally has negative connotations.  Someone might therefore take this statement to denote the idea that anarchism is a danger that threatens all forms of political organization.  Under this characterization, anarchy…